


Ghosts on Heaven's door

by EmilieTulip



Category: The Book Thief (2013), The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Death, F/M, Ghosts, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Not A Fix-It, Sorry Not Sorry, The angsty ghost fic that nobody asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-14 11:10:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16491422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmilieTulip/pseuds/EmilieTulip
Summary: A Point of notice:They say that one would not recognise their own clone. The residents of Himmel Street certainly didn't recognise their own corpses. But then, I suppose, death and life look so very different.(In which the dead wake up unaware and separated from the world which means so much to them and a girl who can no longer write their words.)





	Ghosts on Heaven's door

For the first few seconds everything seemed normal.

 

It was too soon to know; too soon for the understanding of what had happened to set in. They were asleep. They had not felt the cold arms of death as he plucked their souls away and led them over to the other side. It was not known to them that they were on the other side at all, but after those few lingering seconds there was at least enough to know that not all was as it was supposed.

 

A street of heaven had fallen to perdition. Houses were rubble and - _were those bodies?_

 

***** A Point of notice *****

**They say that one would not recognise their own clone. The residents of Himmel Street certainly didn't recognise their own corpses. But then, I suppose, death and life look so very different.**

 

Among the crowds there were murmurings. What had happened? Who were these bodies? Where were their houses? Frau Steiner hugged her cluster of lemon haired children close and waited and waited for some sense of clarity. Not two feet away a woman cloaked in thunder and a man with a heart of music begged the skies for their foster daughter. She did not appear, it was not her time.

 

When the people came, as people always did in a scene of carnage, their presence offered no consolation. Their questions went ignored and entire persons were being avoided. The explanation was clear, for who could look another in the eyes and know that they had lost everything. Only one thing could not be explained by the appearance, and this was the rejection of contact. Frau Hubermann went to reach out, to slap some sense into the officers and demand they find her daughter, but she found herself deterred. Her entire body wavered a hair's width before the contact and she found she couldn't compel herself to touch any but the select few who had been there when she woke. She did not put much thought to it. She just wanted to find her daughter.

 

Shouts to the left, where the Hubermann house once perched. A bustle of movement as officers crowded around, moving rubble and dust, and then: emergence. A hand, shaking and bruised, then another. Slowly and with the instability of a new-born lamb, a childlike form awoke in the ashes of her world. She was a ghost, haunting the streets of heaven.  For a moment, Hans Hubermann pitied this poor spirit who seemed so lost among the carnage. He wondered if he could not find her family, then he saw her eyes. Dangerous eyes of a girl he knew only too well.

 

'Liesel!' he cried, moving forward to embrace his daughter.

 

His shout echoed across the skies and in a far off world the wind breathed an accordion's sigh. Rosa gripped his arm as they slowed, not sure why they could not approach the girl any closer.

 

'What is wrong with her?' she whispered, fearful. Knowing. _Denying._

 

It is almost amusing the extent a human's denial can reach. Take away their income, they'll say that they're rich. Break their legs, their hearts, they'll tell you they're fine. Show them their corpses, they'll _know_ they're alive.

 

Spurred by Hans' shout, a head of lemons perked up from its place in his mother's arms. Rudy Steiner was a small boy, but his heart could know no limits. He loved his mother, his father, his family. He loved football and running and Jesse Owens. He loved living, he knew this, he did. But most of all, he loved his skittish neighbour who was one day going to be his first kiss. So when he heard the cry of her name, that she had been found, his joy soared. Thank god. For if she'd been dead and he alive then living would hold no life to it.

 

Rudy leapt to his feet, 'Book thief!'

 

He saw her. She was haunted in dust and dirt of all shades. He could barely tell the colour of her hair, but he could tell her and she was brilliant. She was alive! He repeated his call.

 

He'd expected her to turn around, to run to him or to her parents. To hug them, maybe, or sock him lightly on the arm. Maybe she'd shed a few tears or laughs or words. What he hadn't expected was the howl that she released that tore through the very threads of the universe. He hadn't expected her to toss the book, drop to her knees. And he certainty hadn't expected her to grip the shoulders of a small - so small in death as most things are - corpse and shake it till arms gave way to sobbing. He hadn't expected her to kiss it.

 

A flush of confusion and horror. Who was this? Was this Max? But no, he _knew_ this was not for he knew about the boy with feathers for hair. Had Liesel a - a boyfriend? One that she hadn't told him about? His heart was sinking in his chest as he approached the trembling girl.

 

'Liesel?'

 

The girls shoulders wracked as more heathen cries tore through her. She gripped the corpse's face and begged for him to return.

 

'Rudy, no . . . kiss me, Rudy!'

 

In a far-off world, a boy with hair that would forever be the colour of lemons reached out to hug his friend and watched in dismay as his hand passed right through.

 

_Oh . . ._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> I wanted to read this one but nobody had written it.  
> Hope you liked it.  
> Please comment :)


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